Date: 8 July 2023 
From: Patrick Oxsener of Oxsener and Herb's Excellent Adventure (Recording Artist/Lead Singer)
Location: The Netherlands

In The TMR Countdown - July 2023 episode, we featured the song, You & Your Dream, by Herb's Excellent Adventure. We mused about the origins of the band's name. Listen to the segment here:

It’s Herb’s when we’re working and Herbs in our spare time. 🙃 Just kidding… Herb’s Excellent Adventure was the title of an interview our drummer [Anton Leijdekker] found with Primus drummer Tim ‘Herb’ Alexander. We’re all big Primus fans, and we were looking for a nice and short name that everybody could remember. So it was basically a no brainer. 😂

Date: 23 June 2023 
From: Pearl Derringer (Recording Artist)
Location: Los Angeles, California (US)

About her song As Big as Your Cage:

Date: 7 April 2023 
From: Frank F. (Listener)
Location: Roanoke, Virginia (US)

I love Derringer Discoveries. There is a lot of knowledge, research, hard work and dedication put into production of the shows. The listeners hear great music and learn about the artists and their life experiences along the way. The Derringers enunciate and interact in a lively and entertaining fashion. Each episode is truly a musical adventure!

Date: 22 January 2023 
Via: The davidhusted.com Newsletter
From: David Husted (Recording Artist)
Location: Southern Maryland (US)

Shout-Out to Derringer Discoveries!

They down-selected my latest song Moonbeam Blue to their Seedlings Spotify playlist.

This team is located in the Charlottesville, VA vicinity give or take a few miles ; ) I must say this bunch of musical geeks and nerds knows and really enjoys music. They often dig deep. They are true enthusiasts and I appreciate that. They also enable introverted DIY music makers with full time jobs, limited funds and busy lives some air time. They sniff out and lift up songs that exist in the nooks and crannies of the world. They find some real gems out there and I am not just talking about my songs : ) Example: listen to this month's Seedlings list. It is really very, very good! In fact, put it on repeat. 

Now I command you to go follow their podcast on Spotify or your favorite streaming platform. Why the hell not ; )

I included their detailed write-up for the curious on my blog site.

Thank You Derringer Discoveries. I wish you much success!

Much Gratitude,

Dave
Moonbeam Blue

[From Team Derringer: Thanks for the kind words, Dave! Keep doing what you do. 😉]

Date: 17 December 2022 (via Instagram)
Episodes: Two-Year Anniversary (Ep. 41) 
From: Sean Manuel w/ BreakTime (Band)
Listening Location: New Jersey (US)

Sean from BreakTime here. Happy Two Years Derringer Team! From my Ep. 41 listening experience, your episode production is super crisp and you manage to pack a smorgasbord of musical variety into 30 minutes without it feeling rushed. I can tell you all genuinely appreciate music and provide expert knowledge to further enchance your podcast's quality. Regarding the Derringer Discoveries Rulebook, more people need to be decisive when making their concert +1 pick! 😂. Kudos to Laura for adding Rule 3652.7. 🤠

[From Team Derringer: Laura may have come up with a new rule but she still hasn't found The Derringer Discoveries Rulebook™️ to insert it. 😜]

Date: 19 August 2022
Episodes: Lord Huron - Indie Folk's Creative Under-the-Radar Juggernaut (Ep. 25) 
From: John Brown, Photographer
Listening Location: Brooklyn, New York (US)

Paul,

I hope you're well. I recently discovered a wonderful podcast called "60 Songs That Explain The 90's" that I truly and deeply love with all my heart. I've not been one to listen to podcasts very often, and this was the first time I listened to any about music. So that led me to wondering if there were any about or mentioning Lord Huron, who's most recent album Long Lost is one of my absolute favorites. This is how I found your podcast.

I must say I really enjoyed the episode, but I must caution you... your minute long rant about "Time's Blur" was embarrassing. So much so that I felt compelled to write you an email about it, which I have literally never done before.

To be upfront, I'm not a writer or master of harnessing the power of the english language through the written word, so I'm trying my best in what follows:

You go on about how an album should end. But you clearly miss the fact that the actual ending of the album was "What Do It Mean", with the show host type character literally saying goodbye to the audience as they clap. Time's Blur is quite obviously (even to me, an idiot) a bonus track. It doesn't need a special label to for the listener to know that either. It's 14 minutes of cinematic and atmospheric sounds. It's obviously not a song.

You just sound like a complete d*****bag speaking so harshly about something that you yourself are mislabeling. It was so harsh that I actually have no interest in listening to any other episodes of your podcast.

You don't have to like Lord Huron, you don't have to like their album, you don't have to like any of their songs... but if you're going to criticize their work at least do so with integrity. To misframe an obvious bonus track that was used as a thread throughout the album as something else, and then talk s**t about it is just such a dishonest and pathetic critique.

To sum things up, you just came across like a complete and total a-hole. Your musical opinions had my respect for a total of 16 minutes and 49 seconds, and then you lost it forever with this almost cruel and unnecessary nonsense.

With that said, I wish you well, and if you're ever in NYC I would buy you a beer. Cheers.

John Brown

[Editor's note: We've been in touch with John and smoothed things over. He's agreed to give us a second chance. 😉]

Date: 17 August 2022
Episodes: Top Top 10 Count Down - August 2022
From: Luna Keller, Recording Artist from Germany
Listening Location: Germany

I am listening to your wonderful new episode right now! It was awesome to listen to the recap of the number one's of all the months so far, so much great music! Always appreciate your humour when introducing the songs - the google translate intro made me chuckle :-) 

Big hugs and thanks again,

Luna Keller

Date: 14 August 2022
Episodes: Orbison to Jeremy (Ep. 37) & Posthumously Prince (Ep. 36)
From: Bryan Cooper, Recording Artist from Japan
Listening Location: Fukuoka City, Japan

Roy Orbison. What a magical voice. Pretty Woman, You Got It, Cryin, Handle With Care with the Wilburys. Such a unique timbre, always gave me goosebumps. 

I enjoyed your Prince episode. I agree that there's something macabre about cashing in on someone's private musings. I wouldn't like someone to go through my unreleased material and put it out there. But I suppose I understand the fascination for super fans. I was like that with R.E.M. and The Stone Roses, hoovering up every demo/bootleg I could find!

Bryan

Date: 1 August 2022
Episode: The Top 10 Count Down - August 2022
From: Havard Moltu, Recording Artist OOSLOO
Listening Location: Oslo, Norway

Hi there. 

Well done! Very engaging, and a lot of good music. And, of course, it’s exciting to hear your own song played on a countdown like that.

I’ll keep listening!

Sincerely,

Havard M

Date: 12 July 2022
Episode: The Top 10 Count Down - July 2022
From: Luna Keller, Recording Artist from Germany
Listening Location: Germany

Hi Paul,

Thanks a million for supporting "We'll be together" on your wonderful podcast! It's such an honour to be a finalist for "Song of the Year 2022", especially considering the quality of music you feature. 

I just listened to "The Top 10 Countdown - July 2022. It was really lovely to get these little tasters of amazing songs, really made me want to come back to each of them to hear the full song! You're such a dynamic team too, it's really refreshing to hear a team moderating with such great chemistry. 

Big musician hugs,

Luna

Date: 11 July 2022
Episode: The Top 10 Count Down - July 2022
From: Bryan Cooper, Recording Artist from Yorkshire, England - Currently living in Japan
Listening Location: Fukuoka City, Japan

What a wonderful, fun ride it's been. It's stoked the fire even more in me, so I hope to be back again with another track in the near future. Proud to have had people vote for me in at no.13. 

I listened to the podcast. Took me back to the BBC Top 40 countdowns I used to listen to. Really professional production and delivery from yourself, Laura, Dave and Alton. I enjoyed listening to the b ackstories to each artist. With the overwhelming amount of music we're exposed to these days, it's nice to be reminded that there are actual humans behind these songs. 

Have a great day.

Bryan

Date: 11 July 2022
Episode: L.A. Women (Ep. 35)
From: Lina Cooper, Recording Artist from Los Angeles, California
Listening Location: Los Angeles, California (US)

Hi, everyone!  

This is Lina Cooper reaching out, just wanted to thank you for featuring me on your LA Women episode of your podcast. I really appreciate you mentioning my song! 

Also, just wanted to thank you for dedicating a whole episode and playlist to the current events happening in Ukraine. I am from Ukraine, from the city of Donetsk to be specific, and I appreciate you spreading the word about this issue. 

Let me know if I could be of any help to you! 

Thank you so much, 

Lina 

Date: 1 July 2022
Episode: Life After Rush (Ep. 34)
From: Per Alexanderson, Recording Artist from Sweden
Listening Location: Örebro, Sweden

Hi guys! Thanks for adding my songs to Your playlists! Here's some feedback on the Rush episode:

I had a great time listening to the Rush episode since I was a big fan growing up in the 70s and 80s. I loved the experimental music and the intelligent lyrics and I would say Hemispheres is one of my top favorites from their catalogue. Great to hear that the remaining guys haven't given up on creativity and finding new outputs for it.

Thanks for a great episode AND the post episode bonus w Maiah Wynne! I wish Alex Lifeson would join MY band 😀

All the best!

Per

Date:  30  June 2022
Episode: L.A. Women (Ep. 35)
From: Alex Percival (of the rock band Topline Addicts)
Listening Location: Dallas, Texas (US)

Just got a chance to check out the LA Women episode. I really liked it! You guys are definitely entertaining to listen to, and I liked how you put in lots of clips (snips? excerpts?) of songs punctuating sentences in the introductory section. And holy crap, Keep Multiplying is so catchy! Definitely will be trying to check out the rest of Livingmore's stuff!

Alex Percival

Date: 30 June 2022
From: Ben F.
Listening Location: Charlottesvile, Virginia (US)

Hello Paul,

Just wanted to write to say that I have listened to a few episodes of your podcast and am enjoying it! The production value is high and I have enjoyed the interactions between the hosts. I have found a few new musicians I want to look into as well.

Thanks,

Ben

Date: 2 May 2022
Episode: Genesis vs. Gabrial (Ep. 33)
From: Mike Powell
Listening Location: Lynchburg, Virginia (US)

Hi, Team Derringer! 

Like Dave and Laura, I’d vote for Genesis over Gabriel. The group stuff from all eras has always interested me more than the solo work of the individual members. I’d break from the team on the other issues, though. I’d suggest that Genesis did jump the shark with Calling All Stations, their final studio album, recorded after Phil Collins left the band and was replaced on lead vocals by Ray Wilson. This is a highly debatable point though, since the album did have some very good tracks that were worthy of Genesis, and the two drummers hired to replace Phil seemed to make an effort to replicate his signature drum sound. 

I’d say the band definitely redeemed themselves with the 2007 “Turn It On Again” reunion tour, but unfortunately crossed the rubicon with this latest tour. I would have been quite happy for the 2007 tour to have been the final farewell it was originally intended to be. I don’t mean to be unnecessarily harsh, but the health issues Phil Collins is experiencing aren’t simply due to natural aging. To be sure, he has had numerous unfortunate health problems that were beyond his control, like issues with bones in his neck and wrist that were made brittle from steroids to keep his voice going, and finally gave out on the 2007 tour. Before that he had even lost most of his hearing in one ear, but still recorded an album. After the Genesis tour, he recorded his Going Back album of Motown covers, and performed a series of concerts to promote it. 

Unfortunately, it was during these concerts that he had a falling out with his drummer Chester Thompson over something minor, but his tantrum was enough to make Chester vow to never work with Phil again. Sadly, the reason for the tantrum was that Phil had developed a serious drinking problem while working on the Tarzan musical and going through his third divorce. His alcoholism nearly killed him more than once, and rather than the previous issues that left him still able to perform, it was alcoholism that put him in the chair, killed his voice and his timing. 

Obviously the story of a rock star drinking heavily and being unable to perform as a result isn’t necessarily unique to Phil, but for someone who was described by bandmate Mike Rutherford as “Perfectionist, Level 3” because he used to slip notes under people’s dressing room doors on what he thought could be done better, I was amazed he felt it was okay to go on two solo tours and this recent Genesis tour. It’s obvious in any YouTube video from this tour that he’s barely able to croak out the lyrics, and does so with barely any sense of melody and timing. For a band known for “art rock”, it’s a sad ending to their story. 

For more detail (believe it or not), I highly recommend Phil’s autobiography “Not Dead Yet”… particularly the audio version, unabridged and read by the man himself. My only theory, aside from the obvious cash grab (and he was having major issues with his last ex-wife with whom he had reconciled for a while) is something similar to what Pete Townshend did for Eric Clapton with The Rainbow Concert. According to the book, the impetus for Phil’s drinking was that he had “retired” from performing, and being away from his youngest kids while going through an apparently nasty divorce from their mother while he worked on the Tarzan musical.

Phil and Eric Clapton have been friends for decades of course, and Eric helped Phil get into rehab for a bit until he’d had enough and checked himself out. I guess getting him back performing again might have done for him what it had done to get Clapton off heroin all those years ago. He also had the book to promote, so I guess people naturally expected more than just talking.  

I remember thinking his “comeback” performance at the U.S. Open was just awful, as were his talk show appearances around the same time. Sadly, I rewatched them in trying to make the point to fellow fans on Facebook that he wasn’t getting any better and was shocked at how good they were in comparison to the Genesis tour videos I had been seeing. I hadn’t noticed how steep his decline had actually been. I’m certainly in no position to judge, but given his expectations of himself and everyone around him in his prime, I couldn’t believe he felt it was okay to put on such embarrassingly sub-par performances. 

However, if it saved his life in the same way The Rainbow Concert is credited with saving Clapton’s, I guess it was worth it. As a longtime fan, I’m frankly just glad it’s over. 

Date: 22 April 2022
Episode: Toad the Wet Sprocket: Not Just Another 90s Band & Why (Ep. 23) 
From: Steve S. 
Listening Location: Chicago, Illinois (US)

BTW, just listened to the Toad the Wet Sprocket episode. One of my first favorite bands! Inspired me to listen to them today, and I hadn't caught up with their last couple albums - y'all are right, they're good! I'm also a lover of Glen Phillips's solo work (his most recent album Swallowed By the New is very sad but very good) and Toad's Christmas single It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas, written by one of my favs, Sam Phillips.

Thank you! A special thank you to all the recording artists worldwide who have included Derringer Discoveries as one of their Spotify Artists Playlists. This means a lot to us! Thanks for returning the love. If you are an artist who has included us as one of your Artists Playlists, and you aren't listed below, please let us know and we'll give you a shout out right here on our website! 

The following bands are currently including Derringer Discoveries or Turnip Music Radio as one of their Artist Playlists:

• Erin & The Wildfire - Richmond, Virginia (US) 
• Forgetful Alien - New York, New York (US)
• Matia - Oregon (US) 
• Ned and Wendy the Band - Los Angeles, California (US)

Artists who have recently included Derringer Discoveries or Turnip Music Radio as one of their Artist Playlists:

• Aloud - Los Angeles, California (US)
• In.Vade - Kyiv, Ukraine 
• JUL - Spain

Also: Havard Moltu, recording as OOSLOO - Oslo, Norway - Quotes Paul Derringer of Derringer Discoveries in the Artist Profile "About" section.

MATIA

APR 2022: Recording artist, Matia, from Oregon (US), California (US), and Greece was one of many from around the world who submitted a song to us for inclusion on our Artists for Ukraine playlist. She also made our day with her kind words, so we are returning the favor. Listeners, check out Matia's catalog and in particular her song Children as featured on our Artists for Ukraine playlist. And to Matia: "Kudos to you and your compelling songs."

The Daily Progress

A shout-out to reporter and features writer Jane Norris Sathe and The Daily Progress for featuring Derringer Discoveries in a story published on 21 April 2022. We are including the entire story below:

'Derringer Discoveries' giving Ukraine's musicians a microphone

An answer awaits music fans who’ve been wondering what they can do to help artists in Ukraine while their world is turned upside down. It’s as simple as listening to songs by Pasha Black, In.Vade and other musicians from Ukraine on the “Derringer Discoveries: A Music Adventure Podcast” and its growing international playlist.

When listeners catch the tunes on Spotify, the musicians get royalties that can help in chaotic times. Likes, streams, shares and social media mentions help spread the word to even more new fans, especially with the hashtag #ArtistsForUkraine. And if you love the feeling of discovering a new-to-you band or artist, you’ll get the added bonus of learning why listeners in the United Kingdom, Sweden, South Africa, South Korea and across the United States are keeping up with the podcast behind the playlist.

The podcast’s hosts, who call themselves Team Derringer, share quite a backstory. Alton Prillaman and Paul Johnson perform together the band Ho Jo Fro, and they’ve participated in various bands and projects since making friends in the fourth grade. Johnson’s friendship with Laura McCauley dates back to kindergarten. Johnson and Dave Derringer have the longest tie; they’re actual brothers.

Each brings a skill set to complete the circle. Lynchburg-based Derringer brings radio disc jockey career experience to the table; he started his radio career at Z100 FM in Lynchburg in 1985. Johnson has been as a songwriter, performer and part-time radio disc jockey; fans will remember him from Howard/Johnson and other bands.

Prillaman, a bass guitarist, brings the tech skills needed to keep everything running smoothly.

“We’d be lost without Alton. He’s our IT guy,” McCauley said. With Prillaman in the mix, “Now we have actual listeners,” Johnson added.

McCauley, who joins from Roanoke, started as a fan and soon became a member of the family. What started as The Derringer Brothers — named for a family wedding business bearing Derringer’s on-air handle — became Team Derringer once the sister joined the fold.

“Everybody who’s on the podcast automatically becomes a Derringer,” Johnson said. “Laura was one of our most devoted listeners, and she reached out and said, ‘What do you need to do to become a Derringer?’’’

Helping Ukraine’s musicians was a natural fit.

“We decided to do an episode on Ukraine, and it was one of those moments we were all enthusiastic about,” Johnson said.

Musicians near and far also liked the idea. “We floated this idea of doing an episode on Ukraine, and everyone wanted to be on board,” Prillaman said.

Pasha Black, who lives in Kyiv, has a sound that reminds Johnson of Peter Gabriel and a lyrical gift that evokes Bob Dylan. Black has spoken with the hosts at different times of day and night while staying safe in the midst of Russian military attacks.

Black once told Johnson, “’Can’t chat now; the bombs are falling,’” Prillaman said. “That gave us a little bit of insight into what they’re going through.”

In.Vade plays “just solid rock ‘n’ roll music,” Prillaman said. “They remind me of Evanescence.”

A quick look at the Artists for Ukraine playlist includes “We Stand Together,” a charity single by 24-year-old Georgian artist Lua, who united 25 musicians and singers to appear.

“Hey Hey Rise Up” by Pink Floyd features Andriy Khlyvnyuk, frontman of Boombox. Ben Folds contributed “Landed.” Erin and the Wildfire — a local band who gained a loyal fan, a professor in South Korea, through the podcast — added “Sleep So Easy.”

The “Listening to Ukraine” episode of the podcast aired March 31, and it’s available on the website at derringerdiscoveries.com.

While on the site, listeners can catch up on episodes covering a wide range of musical topics. “We’re a world podcast, even though we’re from Virginia,” Johnson said.

And these days, the spotlight is on Ukraine.

“Anything we can do to show them our support, we’re going to do,” Prillaman said.

“Derringer Discoveries” can be found streaming on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Audible, Podbean, Google and other favorite places. To learn more about the podcast, the music and the artists, head to derringerdiscoveries.com.

Pictures of Team Derringer (clockwise from top-left): Paul Derringer, Alton "BP" Derringer, Laura Derringer, and Dave Derringer: